Design Leadership

Growing Designers, Shaping Strategy,
and Delivering Results

I've spent five years at Hiya building a design function – hiring and developing a team of seven, establishing the practices that let them do their best work, and operating as a strategic voice at the leadership table. Here’s an overview.

My Role
Director of Product Design
Team
7 — designers, researchers, product support
Scope
3 product verticals across mobile & enterprise web
Timeline
Aug 2020 – Present

How I Lead

A player/coach who “gets” the work

I describe my leadership style as player/coach, and I mean it deliberately. I'm not a manager who left design behind. I stay close enough to the work to accelerate output, model quality standards, and earn credibility with the people I lead. At the same time, my primary job is to create the conditions for my team to do their best work without needing me in the room.

In practice, that means I set direction and then get out of the way. I give designers ownership of their work and their outcomes. I connect their day-to-day decisions to North Star Metrics and business goals so the work feels meaningful, not just tactical. And I step in with hands-on design when it genuinely moves things faster – not because I can't let go, but because sometimes the right leadership move is to roll up your sleeves.

My goal is a team that doesn't need me to make decisions but knows I'll be there when the decisions are hard.

People Development

Hiring and growing the team

I grew the Hiya design and research function from 3 independent designers (including myself) to a seven-person org spanning product design, UX research, and product support. Every hire was intentional: I partnered with the talent team to source candidates, led interviews, and made the calls on who would raise the bar for the team.

Hiring is the easy part. Development is the work. I created career leveling rubrics for design and research to give team members a clear picture of what growth looks like and what's expected at each level. I run regular 1:1s, facilitate team design critiques, and provide individually-focused mentorship that's useful, calibrated to where each person is and where they want to go.

📐
Career Leveling Rubrics
I created frameworks for design and research that clarify expectations at every level and give team members a concrete path forward.
🔁
Critique & Feedback Culture
Established regular team design critiques and 1:1 feedback sessions, creating safe places to get help and practice reps that improve quality over time.
🎯
Goal Clarity
I connect individual work to North Star Metrics and OKRs so designers and researchers understand why their work matters — to the team, to users, and to the business.
🤝
Cross-Functional Reputation
I've built a team that's consistently recognized by product and engineering partners for collaboration quality, design craft, and responsiveness.

Strategic Contribution

Operating at the leadership table

Design leadership at Hiya has never been limited to shipping product. I've consistently operated as a strategic contributor – creating vision docs, identifying market opportunities, and influencing product direction at the company level. Here are a few examples:

Validated over time (2022)
🏆 Connect Product Vision: The Roadmap That Proved Itself
The Hiya Connect team was struggling with a lack of strategic direction: constantly changing priorities, no clear medium or long-term vision. I wrote a product vision document that laid out a roadmap from the single-feature, sales-led product we had to a multi-feature platform with self-serve signup and expanded customer value. The vision wasn't well received by the product leader at the time. But after leadership changes on the team, much of what I outlined has been built or is actively in the pipeline – and revenue has increased dramatically.
Strategic exploration (2022)
💬 Text Message Market Opportunity Report
Identified and documented Hiya's potential entry into SMS fraud protection. Because Hiya is already directly integrated into carrier networks, the company is uniquely positioned to fight text-based fraud and scams, a category responsible for billions in annual consumer losses. I researched the market size, quantified the opportunity, and outlined how Hiya's existing infrastructure could support solutions.
Platform thinking (2023)
🧩 Cross-Product Integration Vision
Authored a vision document exploring how Hiya's separate product lines – Hiya Protect, Hiya Connect, and the consumer mobile apps – could work together to create more cohesive value for customers. The vision included Protect features integrated into Connect, Connect features surfaced in mobile apps, and a mobile-first experience for Connect enterprise customers to interact with their customers during live calls.
Research-grounded vision (2025)
👷 WorkPhone: AI-Powered VOIP for Solopreneurs
I created a research-backed vision for transforming Hiya AI Phone into "WorkPhone" – a productivity-focused VOIP app designed for solopreneurs and microbusiness owners (think real estate agents, plumbers, independent contractors) where the owner is also the operator. The vision uses AI agents as a receptionist and assistant: scheduling appointments, answering after-hours calls, and creating connections across calls, contacts, and conversation details. Grounded in real-time research interviews conducted by our researcher, PMs, and two outside research groups.

Design operations

Building the infrastructure for good work

A team can only do its best work when the operational foundation supports it. I've invested consistently in the processes, tools, and systems that let my team move faster, collaborate better, and measure what matters.

  • Implemented Pendo, Hotjar, Logrocket, and Gleap to measure user engagement and identify experience gaps

  • Introduced a ticket system to help team members track and prioritize work

  • Led adoption of AI tools to reduce busywork and increase design velocity

  • Updated design tooling and workflows to accelerate output and cross-team alignment

  • Established research practices that feed directly into product planning

  • Initiated and led an overhaul of Hiya's product support function, focused on metrics, automation, and faster customer problem resolution

Impact

What the team has delivered

The team I've built supports three product verticals – consumer mobile apps, B2B enterprise web apps, and internal tooling – and has shipped work that moves the business in measurable ways.

The self-serve launch for Hiya Connect produced a 400% increase in new monthly paid customers. Ease of use and design quality are regularly cited by customers as purchasing factors and highlighted by the sales team as competitive differentiators.

The Hiya AI Phone app – a 0-to-1 product the team built from scratch – is live on iOS and Android. And the product support overhaul I initiated is improving response quality and resolution speed for customers across all of Hiya’s products.

Beyond the numbers: I've built a team that's trusted by its cross-functional partners, known for doing good work, and capable of operating with real autonomy. That's the result I'm most proud of.

Get in touch

Ready to chat about design leadership? Send me a message at hi@hichristopher.com or on LinkedIn.